Cheaper electronics helped, but my rose colored memories are that... * Manufacturers were using the lower cost electronics to add more features at the same pri

Cheaper electronics helped, but my rose colored memories are that... * Manufacturers were using the lower cost electronics to add more features at the same price point rather than lowering their price point. The OLPC definitely shook that up. * The OLPC led the way using linux for the underlying OS, which led to the first netbooks using linux. This really shook up Microsoft, resulting in them offering deeply discounted copies of WinXP to netbook manufacturers to recapture that market ($15? vs. $50++? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netbook#Windows http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netbook#Windows, http://www.electronista.com/articles/09/04/19/ms.asks.15.for.xp.netbooks/ http://www.electronista.com/articles/09/04/19/ms.asks.15.for...). With respect to the last bullet, the OLPC drove down software prices as much as Moore's Law drove down hardware prices.